The Almadura Apartments

Back in the winter of 2010 I was on the hunt for a new apartment.  I wanted one quickly and with minimal move in costs.  I found that in the Almadura apartments.

The apartment advertised looked large and comfortable.  I went over to look one afternoon and was shown a loft apartment.  It was a one room deal with a kitchen, bathroom and large closet.  All in all it looked like a nice set up for a guy whose significant other was not yet in town.  I took it, and received a half off deal on the deposit.  I was happy with it and arranged to move in the following weekend.

After moving in I began noticing the typical problems that are associated with moving into a new place.  Now this building was 89 years old at the time I moved in (it's 90 years old now).  It had its quirks and peculiarities, but it was an okay place to live.  Then I started noticing bigger problems.  The windowsill seemed to be slightly rotted.  The plumbing in the kitchen was in need of repair.  I came home one day to find an orange colored mold growing on the floor near the kitchen (please note that when I went to work 8 hours earlier there was nothing on the floor).  One morning I found mushrooms growing on the previously mentioned bathroom windowsill.  When I returned from a several week vacation overseas, my apartment had become overran with roaches and spiders (disgusting creatures).

Each of these problems I promptly reported to the management.  Usually they would be extremely helpful sounding and would "get the problem fixed immediately".  More often than not it would be days if not weeks before the problem was jury rigged (rarely were things truly fixed).  I called management five times to get the rotting windowsill fixed, yet it was nearly 6 weeks from the time I found the mushrooms and started complaining about the problem until it was fixed.  The only way it got fixed was I cornered one of the managers and asked how to break my least due to the lack of repairing of the problem.  It was fixed the next day.

This was a typical aspect of the Almadura.  Sometimes when I complained about something the manager would merely say "That's part of the charm of living in a historic building."  God how I tired of that response.  I got that response almost every time I complained of something.  No, it's not charming to live with huge roaches and giant spiders that hang out in your hung up clothes.  It's also not cool to have mold growing out of your base boards.

Another annoying thing about this apartment was the other residents.  At first there was a cool, eclectic group of people living there.  But soon after I moved in, it became apparent that there was seemingly a revolving door in the place.  People were constantly moving out.  Eventually the Almadura filled up with younger college students.  Not all bad, but the environment became more like that of a dorm than an apartment building.  It was not a pleasant place anymore.  The kids would often party in the parking lot, keeping everyone up whose apartment boarded the parking lot.  The kicker is is that the roof was the designated as the party area.

That brings me to the next point:  the roof.  The roof and its view was what sold me on the Almadura.  It was a great place to hang out until the sun went down and the roaches came out.  They'd scurry all over the place, up people's legs and anywhere they could get to.  When that problem was brought up to the management they vehemently denied having a bug problem.  Yeah...No bugs...Don't believe that crap.  They have bugs.

Now the Almadura is pretty convenient for downtown and midtown partying.  There are some good restaurants nearby as well.  But that's about it.

Overall it's not a very pleasant place to live.  I guess if you really want to live in Midtown it's cool, but other than that it's not worth it.  And I guess it's okay of the money, but I will never live there again.

Dormitory life in my 30s

I currently live in a "historical building" in Midtown Memphis.  From the pictures I saw online last year when I was apartment hunting, it looked great.  It had great looking atmosphere and I really dug that it was built in the 1920s.  I moved in and things seemed okay.  My apartment was a loft (one room) and didn't have much in the way of amenities, but the price was right and I needed a place to hang my hat asap.

I'm not going to go into the bulk of the problems I had at this building (that's for a different post later on, after I move).  The focus of this posting is the change of residency in the year and a half I've been living there.

When I first moved in at the end of February 2011, the apartments were filled ranging from people in the late 20s to their 40s and up.  I even saw a family with a kid.

A couple weeks after I moved in I noticed a moving truck.  Someone was moving out.  A couple days later another truck was there moving someone else in.  It became a pattern.  It almost felt like the apartment building was a giant revolving door, tenants who had lived there for years were moving out and new, younger residents were taking their places.

Most of the people moving out had the same complaint:  the new management was severely lacking.  The new managers took over the building in January 2011 and shortly thereafter the quality of life in the apartments nose dived.

As a result of the influx of younger people the apartments gained an air of a college dormitory.  There started to be a different sort of people hanging around.  It was very reminiscent of being in college.  You know, you had the stoners, the hipsters, the crazy party animals and so on.

It wasn't until recently that it started to become bothersome.  About a month or so ago a couple had a huge argument.  In the hallway.  In front of my apartment.  This is something that children and young adults do.  It's okay to bicker and argue, but keep it in your house.  Don't put it out for everyone to see.  That's just rude.

It wasn't the first or only time either.  This couple (and a couple others) have a fight, which is public, at least once every other week or so.  I have seen or heard at least 5 five fights in the last month and a half.

Another pet peeve of mine is the disregard in parking.  I'm pretty sure residents allow their friends to park in the gated lot behind the apartments.  This lot is for residents only.  Having non-resident cars in the already small lot makes it to where the actual residents cannot park there.  I pay to park there, non-residents don't and have no business parking there.  Also, people have ignored the handicapped signs in the parking lot.  Last year, someone actually moved the sign so that they wouldn't be parking in a "handicapped" spot.  That really pissed me off.  The two spots that are reserved are for people in wheel chairs and they need those spots so they can get out of their vans.  If their spots are filled they end up taking up two normal spots.

Basically, I just want people to be more conscientious when living in an apartment building.  You are not the only one living here.  Keep your business private and be respectful of the other residents.